How Long O Lord?

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Psalm 13:1-2 (NIV)

How long O Lord?

It’s a gut-wrenching question that keeps turning up throughout the Scriptures, if not always explicitly, at least in spirit.

It’s the cry of Abraham and Sarah as they wait for 25 years for the child God has promised them.

It’s the cry of Israel in Egypt after Pharoah turns the people into slaves and forces them to chomp down on the bitter dust of oppression.

It’s the cry of Israel during the time of the Judges as they are pestered by the Philistines.

It’s the cry of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1 as she sits at the tabernacle, brokenhearted because she is childless while her husband’s other wife is more fertile than the Amazon rain forest.

How long O Lord?

It’s a question of desperation, a cry of frustration, a plea to a God who has made a promise to be faithful. It’s asked by those who have reached their breaking point and can’t stand it any longer.

In the Scriptures, God repeatedly answers the question “How long O Lord?” by taking action at just the right moment. Usually this action is somehow related to the birth of a special baby who will grow up to do special things.

A child named Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah. He’s living proof that God keeps his promises.

A child named Moses is born in Egypt. He’ll lead his people out of bondage.

A child named Samson is born in Israel. From his enemies he’ll take no sass, he’ll whip the Philistines with the jawbone of an . . .(nevermind).

A child named Samuel is born to Hannah. He’ll grow up to be a mighty prophet of God and a maker and breaker of kings.

One of the great tragedies of the holiday season is that we get so caught up in what has been dubbed by some as “McChristmas,”-a rushed, commercialized, mutation of the Christmas celebration-that we forget that Jesus was God’s answer to the question “How Long O Lord?”

For Centuries, Israel had been waiting for God to fully deliver them from their exile and to restore them to glory. How long would God allow their land to be occupied by pagan idol-worshipers whose king was named Caesar, instead of Messiah?

At precisely the right moment God took action. I love the way Paul puts it in Galatians 4:4-5:

But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. (NLT)

God had been preparing his people for this moment for centuries, when the time was right, He entered history as Jesus of Nazerath, the Christ, and in doing so addressed all the evils that had inspired or would ever inspire the question “How long O Lord?”

As we look forward to the coming of Christ, let us look around and name the evil we see and let us pray, “How long O Lord?”